Spoiler Alert: This chapter has a lot of references to Season 7 Episode 11: Showtime.
Disclaimer: As Previously mentioned I don't own anything recognizable. Any Buffy quotes and plots are owned by Joss and Co. I also reference 1984, a Kennedy speech and threw in a little reference to a favorite character of mine. You'll notice it if you're a fan. Nothing belongs to me but Veronica.
Authors Note: For anyone who's been following my story a big thank you is in order. So, Thank you! Also love the fact that I've had people ask me to continue the story across multiple sites. Yay! It's been a month since my last update so this one is extra long for those who've been left waiting.
Also: Reminder: I don't have a beta and this was a long chapter so please excuse some of the mistakes I've missed.
Enjoy.
—
Sunnydale California, January, 2003
Veronica sat at the table in the living room of the Summers' residence. She'd been flipping through a couple of spell books that Willow had left out earlier. She'd been sitting there for about an hour, she couldn't stand another minute in that basement with the others.
She was tired of hearing the other Potentials complain about the way things were going. Eve in particular did nothing but question Buffy and her skills, their safety, their decisions. The others all fed off her negativity, breeding fear and doubt throughout the ranks.
It was getting on her last nerve.
She'd been upstairs for the past hour, sitting at the table for a whole hour, and neither Dawn nor Andrew had noticed her presence in the room.
"Okay, here's another interesting thing. How come the Slayer's always a girl?"
"I don't know. 'Cause girls are cooler?"
Andrew has been pestering Dawn since they'd walked into the room. Veronica was trying to focus on the pages before her, but their words kept cutting through.
Wards and Barriers.
She managed to tune them out and read a full page of notes on the subject of protective barriers. There were many different ways to create one. Incantations and anchoring a barrier to objects of power or runes. These would definitely come in handy in the future.
Veronica read the words to a particular barrier spell. She spread her hands out in front of herself, power seeping into her fingertips. She could see a translucent ripple between her hands as she spoke the incantation. "Caerimonia, Minerva. Saepio, Saepire, Saepsi.
Saepio Impedi-"
"Do you wanna play Kevin Bacon?!" Andrew was calling out to Dawn as the girl left the room.
Veronica huffed at being interrupted. The beginnings of her barrier died at her distraction.
"Do you wanna play Kevin Bacon?" The young potential looked up from her book to see that Andrew was talking to her. He was pouting at her from his spot sprawled out on the couch.
"Kevin who?" Andrew had sprung up from the couch and marched over to the table.
"Kevin Bacon. You know, like, Tremors," Veronica just stared at him. "Hollow Man," he raised a brow at her. "Stir of Echoes, Friday the 13th? Footloose?" He through his hands up in frustration. "Kevin Bacon!"
"You yelling his name at me isn't going to make a difference. I don't know who that is. I don't know the other things you listed either. What, are they books?" Veronica snapped the book shut. She had a feeling she wasn't going to get any more reading done today anyway.
"Books?! Well, some of them might be books- but they're movies! Great movies! You've never seen any of them?" He sounded disappointed, but not surprised. "Well, you're about ten, right? I guess you're probably not allowed to see most of them."
"I've never seen a movie before, at all." The look he gave her said it all. He was scandalized.
"What, were you raised by demons?!"
"The Watchers Council." He raised both brows at that.
"I am intrigued." He pulled out the seat opposite her and gracelessly plopped himself down. "Is that why the other Potentials don't like you?"
Andrew was blunt. Really blunt.
"No one really told me anything specific. Well, no one tells me anything, really. But I overheard Anya mention the tension between you and the others. And by overheard I mean she and Xander literally had the conversation right in front of me and ignored me the whole time."
There was an underlying tension between her and the other Potentials and there was no hiding it. The other girls were all older than her ranging from fifteen to their early twenties. She was the odd man out.
The Potentials tended to talk down to her, ignore her input and just exclude her from conversations completely.
She'd taken to aggressively asserting her presence in retaliation. She challenged Violet the other day. The older Potential had insisted that she shouldn't partner with Veronica in fear of hurting her so Veronica got a little angry during the spar. She hadn't pulled her punches, and easily overpowered the older girl even when she did actively try to fight back.
Xander had to pull Veronica off Violet.
The incident was labeled as a childish tantrum and made things worse. Veronica really needed to get a hold of her temper.
"I don't like them either." Veronica tried to make nice in the beginning but she gave up rather quickly.
"I've noticed."
"Is there a reason why you're bothering me?"
"No one here likes me, at all. Dawn just threatened to kill me because I talk too much. She said Buffy told her she can. Is that true?"
It wasn't. Buffy had a thing about not killing humans, even humans who weren't necessarily the most innocent of people.
"Yes." She stared him straight in the eyes as she said so. "She actually told all of us that."
"Ugh." He propped an elbow up on the table, nudging aside a book. "I'm just so bored, and alone. I was hoping I could help with whatever you were doing." He reached out for a book on his side of the table.
"No!" She slapped at his hand as he wrapped his fingers around a book that she knew from her time with the Council. He dropped the book with a yelp.
"What was that for?"
"You're not supposed to be touching any of these." Willow had mentioned that Veronica was allowed to read through any of the texts laid out if she wanted to, but she also firmly mentioned that Andrew wasn't allowed near any of them when he was released.
"This book especially." She held up the book that he'd tried to read. Darkest Magick. The book was not to be messed with. She'd read parts of it in the copy they had at the Watchers' headquarters. The spells in that tome had a potential for great destruction, for the world and the caster themselves.
"Especially!" Andrew pitched his voice higher in a bid to mock her, he also emphasized the English accent that sometimes tainted her words.
"I don't sound like that."
"Yes, you do." He pushed his chair away from the table and crossed his arms over his chest. "Everyone hates me because I killed Jonathan. But it was a mistake. You don't understand what it was like to have that thing inside your head. Whispering to me all the time. It was a mistake. I'm better now. I can be better, if everyone would just give me a chance."
"You're not the first one to be manipulated by evil. It was a mistake, I can see that you mean that. But it doesn't excuse your actions. All you've done so far is sit here and whine about everything and talk shit about Buffy."
She'd heard that part of Andrew and Dawn's conversation.
Veronica pushed herself out of her chair and began to pile up the books spread across the table. "The other Potentials too. None of you understand. How hard it is to face something impossibly stronger than you, to nearly die at the hands of something like that. To really fight for your life, with teeth and nails and spells."
She felt a kinship with Buffy, being burdened with glorious purpose. She knew that her small experiences could never compare to what the Slayer had been through but it allowed her to understand her side of this situation.
"You've never had to do any of that because Buffy and the many Slayers before her have kept you safe, this town safe. You expect Buffy to do all the fighting because she's the Slayer, but this evil is too big for a single Slayer. It's not her fault, and it's not her sole responsibility. We all need to step up. To train and fight and not just sit here and complain while she sacrifices herself for us. And you? You need to step up and stop apologizing for your mistakes and start doing something to make up for them. Help us, help Buffy and don't talk shit about her when she's not here."
Veronica could see Dawn in the corner of her eye. She'd apparently come back for a book she'd left near the couch. She nodded her head in appreciation at the youngest Potential before heading back into the dining room where she'd gone to escape Andrew.
Andrew opened his mouth to respond.
"Don't!" Veronica interrupted him before he could even speak. "I'm allowed to kill you remember? Just go sulk on the couch or something." With that she carried her pile of books into the dining room and left Andrew to do exactly as she said. He flung himself down on the couch with a huff and a pout.
Veronica set the books down by Willow where she sat with Dawn. She picked up the one on top. Darkest Magick. "I don't think one should be down here at all." She slid the book over to the red headed Witch.
"Oh! No, you're right. I didn't mean to bring this one down. I'll go put it back in my room." Willow stood to head upstairs but was stopped by Buffy storming into the house the house.
—
Hawkins Indiana, September 6th, 1983
"Damn it!"
Veronica ran as fast as she could. The soles of her boots pounded against the earth, leaves and twigs crunched beneath her feet as she ran like Hell was at her heels.
It wasn't.
She'd seen several Hell dimensions and though there were many demons that dwelled within those realms she knew of no actual demons in this universe. No, she wasn't running from something but rather to somewhere.
To Marianne's house, and to her room where her foster mother was going to enter any minute now with the intent to wake Veronica up. Veronica who wasn't there. Veronica who'd been sneaking out every morning to train before school.
Veronica who'd fallen asleep in the middle of the woods while meditating.
"I'm so late." The Slayer ran with her renewed speed. She'd lost some of her abilities in the three years since her arrival. She still possessed the ability to do all the things she had been able to do as a Slayer. She just was out of shape.
The saying "use it or lose it" was entirely accurate in her case. It was like being a Potential again. She was still faster than the average human sure, but she was used to being so much more than barely above average. It had taken a few weeks but she was finally getting back to the Slayer version of normal. And she was really pushing to run her fastest.
"She's gonna kill me." The trees began to thin as she neared the woods that lined her block. She could see the back of a few houses as she got closer.
Veronica looked up through the cover of the trees and searched for the sun. It was still relatively low, maybe she wasn't late yet. She really needed to invest in a watch. She really missed her cellphone. "It really comes in handy for things like this."
She turned her head back to her intended path, just in time to duck underneath a low hanging branch. It missed her face but managed to snag on a lock of her hair. It was caught, and with the speed she was going it actually pulled out several strands.
"Son of a bitch!" She cradled the crown of her head with one hand and gripped the strap of her backpack tighter with the other.
She was close. She could see the Buckley's house. She ran through their backyard and pauses by the side of their house. She made sure no neighbors were out and about and dashed across the street to Marianne's. She could see the light on in the kitchen. She pushed herself to run faster.
She dropped the hand from her head and slipped the arm back through the second strap on her bag. Nearing the fence in the front yard she quickly vaulted over the planks.
She went around the side of the house, to her bedroom window. She pushed at the pane and tossed her bag onto her bed beneath the ledge.
"Veronica? Are you up yet?" Marianne knocked on the door to her room.
Veronica hopped and grabbed onto the windowsill. Her feet dangled two feet off the ground and her entire body hung limply from her hands. She used her grip to pull herself up, managing to do a weird chin up from the ledge.
"Veronica?" Marianne knocked again.
"I'm up!" Her voice came out strangled as she pulled herself further into the room. Her legs dangled out the window as her upper body landed on the bed. She pulled on the sheets and twisted around to finally fully be in the house.
"Are you okay, in there?" She could see and hear the doorknob rattle as she rolled off the bed.
Veronica wasted no time in unlacing her boots and kicking off her jeans. She pulled off the hoodie she'd been wearing and pulled off that one leg of her pants that held on to her ankle. She quickly shoved everything under her bed and opened up the door.
She was met with Marianne dressed in a business suit, a white button up secured at the throat beneath an emerald green blazer and a matching skirt. The shoulder pads and the big chiffon ribbon in her hair gave it that 80s feel. She had stockings on but she was still barefoot.
Her face was worried. Her brows furrowed and her lips in a slight pout. Her eyes bore into the Slayer's.
"What was that?" Veronica pulled her hair down from the ponytail she'd had it in, wincing at the sting from her scalp.
"I asked if you were okay. Your voice is a little off." Marianne swept her eyes down Veronica's body. Taking in her disheveled appearance. The girl was in an oversized t-shirt and a pair of socks, but that was normal. Her eyes lingered on the sweat across Veronica's brow and the flush in her cheeks.
"Yeah I'm fine. I think I may be getting sick though." The Witch made a point of rubbing at her throat, messaging the skin by her tonsils and letting her gaze wander down the hall. She tried to slow her breathing as she tried to act cool.
"You look it." The woman's lips pulled into a frown. "You look a little flushed, may I?" Her hand reached for her forehead and when Veronica nodded she let the back of her hand rest against the girl's skin.
"You're a little warm. Hmm." She turned her hand over to check again. "Maybe you should stay home today." She raised an eyebrow at the girl in question.
The Slayer didn't want to stay back from school. She'd laid out a strict schedule for herself. With the training, monitoring the lab and keeping tabs on Will Byers she had her hands full. Plus she had to keep up appearances with Marianne and make time for homework.
"I have a biology test today. I can't miss it, no make ups." This was true. She hadn't studied for it but there was a test that day. "I'll be fine. I'll just bundle up and drink some tea and maybe eat some soup later."
Marianne stared at her intensely for a second and then she smiled. "You're such a good girl. Okay, go wash up I'll make you some breakfast before I go." She patted Veronica on the head twice and turned to leave.
"Oh and I'll be back a little late today, but no later than ten." She grabbed the doorknob and closed the door as she left.
"Holy fuck, that was close!" Veronica threw herself back onto her bed with a rush of breath leaving her lungs. "Goddess, how did Buffy pull that off for so long?"
Veronica wasn't used to this aspect of the Slayer lifestyle. Many Slayers lived their lives in secret from their friends and families. Very few were raised separately from their family. The Watchers Council integrated Watchers into their lives as coaches, teachers, neighbors, and librarians and the secret was kept from the family though training and slaying was done regularly.
Potentials and Slayers that were orphaned or with bad home situations were taken in by the council. There had only been a few cases over the years. The only other besides herself that she knew by name had been Kendra, the Slayer who had been called after Buffy's first death.
Kendra's parents had been young, Veronica didn't know their situation but she knew that they gave her up willingly to the Council. They were compensated quite well from the records she'd seen.
She'd been looking for her own file at the time but couldn't resist when she saw the fallen Slayer's name. Apparently Veronica's mother had died during childbirth. Her father was unknown. She had no family to pay off so the Council got her for free.
Being raised by the Council and spending the time after that with other Slayers meant that she'd never had to hide who she was or what she did. And the first few years after her arrival here she didn't have much to hide. She played around with her witchy powers sometimes, and she'd used her strength to open jars and carry bags but she hadn't done much more than that, not since she'd accepted her fate here.
She hadn't been actively going around using her powers and fighting off Big Bads. This balancing act between Slayer stuff and normal stuff was hard. She'd never really thought about it before.
"Buffy's a fucking bad ass." With those words of wisdom she quickly finished undressing and headed for the shower.
By the time she got out it was seven o'clock.
She quickly dressed for school. A black long sleeve, black jeans with a rip in both knees, a pair of heeled black boots and a green and black flannel.
She left her hair down after running some product through it and grabbed a beanie after accidentally brushing her fingers across the sore spot on her head. "Fucking trees." She settled the cap on her head and adjusted it in the mirror. A couple of pins secured the hat in place.
She reached over and plucked a choker from a little dish she had all her jewelry in. She grabbed the thickest one and fastened it around her throat. She let her finger linger around the necklace. With a blink of her eyes the irises of her reflection were gold and the glamour on her skin rippled away.
The scars were now visible to anyone who looked close enough, but the clothes and choker covered most of it from sight. She needed them visible for later.
Veronica grabbed her school backpack from under her desk, and shuffled around a few books until she found the one she'd hollowed out. She pulled out her wallet and tucked it into her bag.
After setting the book back on the shelf, she left the room and into the kitchen where two paper bags were left on the counter for her, one labeled breakfast and the other lunch. She shoved both in her bag and locked the door on her way out. She had forty minutes to get to school but she wanted to get there early.
It would take her fifteen if she pedaled fast.
—
Though she wanted to do something before she went to class she found herself pulling over into the center of town. She rode past the turn towards the schools and turned the opposite way.
The shops that lined the street technically made up what would be considered Downtown Hawkins, but it could hardly be called that by anyone who had ever visited a big city. Any city really. It was just two blocks of shops and restaurants, and a few small doctors' offices but it was a nice change from the busy streets of the bigger cities she'd grown used to.
Veronica pedaled past a few shops before she stopped in front of a general store. She'd been inside this specific store a few times before. She'd bought a couple things for school, a pair of binoculars and a stopwatch after her little incident with the lab. She wasn't sure if they sold regular watches but it was worth a shot.
She parked her bike at a nearby bike rack and walked into Melvald's.
A little bell rang overhead as she crossed the threshold. The store was empty, which made sense as it was still before eight. She could hear some shuffling coming from the far end of the store, hopefully whoever was working the register. Usually Melvald himself greeted his customers as they walked in.
"Hello?" Veronica made her way to the counter, where a little bell sat by the register. She tapped the bell twice.
There was a little scuffle by the back of the store. It sounded like someone dropped something, and her Slayer hearing allowed her to hear the murmured "Damn it." A door closed somewhere at the end of the store and a woman called out. "Just a minute!"
The Slayer smiled as she watched a woman, just barely forty or so, stumble out what she assumed was a stockroom or back entrance. She fanned her arms around her head as if clearing something away. She watched as the woman made her way over, tucking a pack of cigarettes into her shirt pocket as she did.
"Hello, how can I help you?" The woman was tired. Veronica could see it in the shadows under her eyes and the way she leaned against the counter, like her arms barely wanted to hold her up. Her voice was clear though, and her smile wasn't at all strained as she stared down at the girl.
"I need a watch, nothing fancy. I just wanted to check if you guys had some before going to a jeweler or something."
The woman eyed her for a second, a smile on her lips. "Shouldn't you be in school?" She sounded amused, her brown eyes were warm as they met her own.
"What?" Veronica looked at the clock against the far wall. It was fifteen to eight. "I still have fifteen minutes before home room starts."
"Hmm, well you'll probably be late." She raised a dark brow at the Slayer.
"Trust me, I won't miss much." She really wouldn't. English was her first class, after home room. She'd been an avid reader in her time with the council. Reading was the only activity allowed to her that wasn't Slayer related. She'd read all the classics, she'd read the greats, she'd already passed her GED. They were currently reading Pride and Prejudice, which she'd read several times over already. She'd been reading Crime and Punishment in its original language when she was nine. There was nothing Mr. Gursky could teach her at this point.
The woman, her name tag read Joyce, swept her eyes across Veronica. The girl wasn't sure what the woman was looking for but she seemed to approve. "We just got some dropped off last week. Follow me." Joyce crooked her fingers while heading around the counter and to a display case not too far from the door.
"May I present to you," she swept her hands dramatically over the glass of the counter, "the Swatches." There were about fifteen different watches all the same design but in different colors. The bands in red, blue, green, grey, white and black and there were several different designs on the faces themselves.
Veronica didn't really do much color. She mostly wore black. It was her inner goth. "Can I see the ones in black?"
Joyce pulled out a set of keys from her pocket and unlocked the back panel of the display case. She grabbed three different black watches and placed them on the counter between them. All three had black bands, one had a white face while the others were all black. The two that were all black were different in only that one showed the date, and the other showed the day and the date.
Veronica picked up the second one, with the day and date. She ran her fingers across the band, it was a plastic, but sort of felt good when she ran her nail over the material. She made sure it fit across her wrist. It fit exactly where she wanted it to, secured on the second to last whole. Her wrist was pretty small.
She was careful not to show the tattoo on her wrist. She'd left her glamour down because she needed to talk to Harrington. He'd seen her scars already, it wasn't something that was easily disguised even with makeup. He'd stared at it for a while, it needed to be visible in his presence from there on out. She'd originally planned on catching him before class, now it would have to wait until after school.
"How much?" She turned her wrist this way and that way, getting used to the feel and the look.
"Thirty five."
"I'll take it." Veronica unclasped the watch and set it in the woman's waiting hand. Their fingers touched and a shock ran up the Slayer's arm. She hissed at the sensation it.
"Sorry! Are you okay? I felt that too." She laughed it off as she set the watches back into the display, and pulled out a box with the model Veronica wanted. "Must be static. I swear it happens all the time. I'm always shocking my youngest. I don't know what's wrong with me."
It was a little more than static. It was just the barest touch of magic.
"I'm fine, it just surprised me. That's all." Veronica was surprised. Three magically inclined people in one town. The Powers really were messing with her now.
"Hey? I'm sorry if this is a weird question but you wouldn't happen to be Will Byers's mom would you?" The woman tensed as she turned her back on the girl to get to the register. Veronica sent out a few tendrils of magic in the woman's direction. Sure enough she found a magical core. Again it was weak, like Will's but just a tad brighter than his. More sensitive, but the same pretty hues of yellows and greens as her son. They shared similar cores, but the mother's had a few streaks of bright red that Will didn't have. She was a bold one.
Veronica thought of another mother she knew of who shared the same name. Joyce. She'd never met Mrs. Summers but she'd heard a great many things about her. She wondered what that Joyce was like in person, if her aura would have been similar to this one's.
Veronica blinked away the gold from her eyes and followed Joyce to the register. The woman looked weary all of a sudden. Her smile forced and her back straight and tense. "Yes, I am." Her words were proud, but her eyes were narrowed. "Why?"
Veronica raised a brow at the way Joyce's words came out. She was confused with the sudden attitude change. The woman had been kind and playful just a minute ago. What was with the-?
Her eyes went wide.
"Oh! You think I'm one of the assholes that picks on him." She held her hands up by her shoulders, palms out, as if to show the woman she was unarmed. "No. I'm kind of new here. I moved here in, what was it, July? I've kind of been labeled a bit of an outcast myself. Will and his Party have been kind to me, but I'm in the year above him so we don't really hang out. But not because of him- He's not- I'm just kind of a loner, ya know? I really, I'm fucking this up, aren't I?"
Joyce sort of stared at her, waiting for Veronica to finish gathering herself together.
"You just look like him." She did look like him, or more accurately he looked like her. But it was the faint presence of magic within both of them that made her think they were related. "That's all. You guys have the same smile."
The smile she was talking about made its way back into the woman's face. It was that same quirky smile that Will gave her after she'd given him back his DnD book. It lit up both of their faces, she smiled with her eyes and everything. They were both very expressive people.
"Thank you. I've always thought so too." Joyce smiled down at Veronica as she rang her up. The Slayer felt weird under the woman's smile. It was freaking her out, all the emotion pouring out from that look she was giving her.
Veronica paid for the watch, it kind of hurt. Her funds were running low. She'd been making a lot of purchases lately. Mostly food, if she was honest. She had stuff at Marianne's but she couldn't resist a good burger from Benny's, or three. She was a Slayer. She had the Slayer metabolism. She liked to eat.
It was fine though because she had an idea in mind on how to make some of that money back.
"Thanks." She took the bag and receipt when Joyce handed them to her.
"Of course. Your welcome…" she trailed off hoping for a name. Veronica slipped the backpack off her shoulder, the collar of her flannel caught in the strap as she pulled it off.
"Hmm? Oh, Veronica Lehane." She unzipped her backpack and put the bag inside the largest compartment. It barely fit with everything else in her bag but it wouldn't be in there for very long. She'd open it up and set it up during break or something.
"Veronica? That's a very, oh, pretty name." Joyce watched as the girl put her new watch away. Her shirts had pulled to one side, shifting her hair and exposing her neck. Joyce's smile became strained looking at the scars across the girl's throat, barely hidden by the necklace she wore.
The girl looked up from zipping up her bag and gave the woman a smirk. "Thank you, I've always thought so too."
Joyce's smile had changed from the tight lipped smile, that Veronica hadn't even noticed, to a smirk though there was still a touch of sadness in her eyes. "You run along now." She shooed her away. "You're already late."
Veronica spotted the clock on the wall. Five minutes to eight. If she gunned it she'd at least make it to the halls before the bell rung, Hawkins Middle was only two blocks down. "See ya."
"Bye, Veronica!" And with the bell ringing with the door she was off.
—
Sunnydale California, January, 2003
After the Buffy and Xander exposed Eve as The First the group decided to gather for a meeting to discuss the threat it had dropped on them all.
It wasn't going well so far.
"Deal? Fight, you mean. How are we supposed to do that?" Rona spoke up from her end of the table.
"And with what?" Violet voiced from beside Veronica.
"With whatever it takes! Right?" The youngest Potential didn't particularly like Kennedy but she agreed with her for once.
Veronica watched on as each girl voiced their thoughts on the situation. It was like a volleyball match.
Molly spoke next. "Buffy, you fought the Turok-Han, and it almost killed you." She was one of the ones who hung out with Eve the most, who fell under The First's influence the most.
"And you're the real Slayer." Chloe, was another one that was heavily influenced by The First.
"What chance do we have?" Rona, again. Constant complaints from her like always.
Veronica had had enough.
"What's the matter with you all?" Everyone turned to look at her. Many were surprised, she'd stopped actively participating in group discussions a while ago. "All any of you are doing is repeating what The First has been telling us since it waltzed in pretending to be Eve. It's all bullshit. Stupid war tactics. Psyche out the enemy. Get into their heads, breed doubt and fear and then you have opponents with no will to fight."
Veronica looked around the table, meeting the eyes of several Potentials. "You're falling for it."
Molly stared back at her. "Does it really matter who said it? It wasn't very far off, was it?" She looked back a Buffy. "Honestly, you staked that thing, and it didn't die."
It descended into nothing but arguments after that. Kennedy and Dawn, the only ones that weren't hopeless, versus the rest of the girls.
Buffy, Xander and Willow all left the room, leaving the girls to continue talking over each other.
Veronica sat back and watched the back and forth between all the girls.
The others did have a point. They weren't full fledged Slayers. There wasn't much the others could do against a Turok-Han Vampire. They'd never even seen a regular Vampire in the flesh before.
Veronica had been lucky to survive the one interaction she'd had with Vampires. The nest in Cardross made her really fight for her life, and Veronica could admit that they probably weren't even a particularly powerful nest either. Just newly risen Vampires terrorizing a random town. The only reason she'd survived was her magic.
These girls didn't have magic to protect them like she did. They did have the numbers needed to make a difference, but only if they were all ready and willing to fight.
The talk of death, and can'ts being thrown around told her that they weren't ready. Not yet.
She stood from her seat and went into the kitchen to find Buffy and Willow.
She found both women and Xander standing in silence by the island counter. They were all trading intense looks silently. Veronica could feel the prickle of magic roll across her skin as soon as she passed the threshold.
Xander noticed her presence first. "Hey! Ronnie, what's up?" He gave her a half smile as she stepped further into the room.
She didn't really like the nickname he'd given her but she didn't object when he'd started using it. So now she was stuck with it.
She nodded in his direction, and then met the eyes of both Buffy and Willow as well. "I just wanted to lend my help on the magical side of things."
Buffy stood taller, no longer leaning against the counter. "That won't be necessary. Willow is more than capable of creating a barrier between us and anything The First sends our way. You don't need to worry about that."
Willow jumped in as well. "Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem I've done similar spells before. We were just worried about the pow-" Buffy shot her a look. "I mean, it's going to be fine. And besides the spell is a little tricky, it's not really something a beginner should be trying."
Xander patted her on the shoulder in consolation.
"Beginner?" She looked at all three of them. "I'm not a beginner. Didn't Giles tell you anything about me? I've been practicing witchcraft since I could read. Look."
Veronica swept her eyes around the kitchen. With a blink of her eyes everything that wasn't anchored down to the counter or floor was floating. Pots, the kettle, the blender, a few bowls from the sink, every kitchen appliance that was out including the fridge floated at least three inches off the ground or counter.
The three of them looked around them in surprise. Veronica leaned over and touched Xander's hand and soon he was floating too. "Whoa! Okay, I get it! 'We all float down here!' Set me down."
She did. And she gently set everything back in its place.
"Okay. So you're more than a beginner." Buffy turned back to look at the young potential. "I still don't think there's anything you can really do to help. Willow is one of the strongest Witches out there. She can do this."
Willow looked between her friend and the young Witchy-Potential, her face scrunched up awkwardly.
"I'm not trying to replace Willow in your plan, I'm just thinking I can add my power to the spell. You know, channel my powers. Willow does the incantation and all I need to do is have physical contact with her, it could possibly double the strength of the barrier."
Xander looked to Willow. "Is that something that we could do Will?"
Willow looked anxious. They all traded several different looks, expressions played across their faces like they were actually speaking.
Veronica felt the tension of magic again.
Maybe they were speaking to each other.
She decided to interrupt the silent conversation that was going on. "I'm also good at a simulated sunlight spell."
"What?!" Willow broke out of the trance first. "I tried that! How did you get it to work?" She stepped up to the younger Witch.
"Yeah, Will and Anya were at the Magic-"
"We don't talk about that Xander!" He shut his mouth with an audible clack in response. They broke out into a small whispered swatting match.
"Does it work against Vampires?" Buffy cut off the twos' bickering.
Veronica thought back to the only time she'd used it in battle. "Yes."
"You've used it against Vampires before? We can't work off hypotheticals here, not against the Turok-Han." Buffy stepped around her two friends to stand directly in front of Veronica.
Veronica was five foot even, which put her about four inches shorter than the Slayer when she wasn't wearing heels, which she always did. Buffy towered over her by a good six inches or so.
The Slayer's green eyes bore into her brown ones as she waited for an answer.
"Yes. I have." Veronica pulled at the collar of her shirt. The material stretched until it passed her shoulder. Her eyes flared gold, making the Slayer take a half step back, and the glamour hiding her scars dissolved away.
"I got these in June." The flesh was ragged. It was still pink and sometimes tender if she messed with it. Burns and claw marks. They all stared at the wound. Buffy put her hand to her own neck.
"My Watcher sent me to clear out a nest near where we were staying in Cardross. There were six Vampires. I used the sun spell on three."
She pulled her shirt back up and took a few steps back. She held her hands out in front of her. Palms facing each other about a foot apart. She conjured up the ball of sunlight wordlessly. It was a small sphere about the size of a football. It was bright, but not blinding. Heat poured off of it in waves. "I can throw the sphere at them or summon it in a form of a ray, a straight beam of light." She let the sunlight retreat back into her hands.
"Holy crap. Definitely not a beginner." Xander was eloquent as always.
Buffy looked back at her friends. Veronica spoke again. "Also I can feel whatever it is that you guys are doing. The magic prickles against my skin. I've never read anything on shared telepathy. Is it something Willow created?"
Buffy huffed in response. "Cat's out of the bag. She's in by default." She nodded to both her friends before looking back at the Potential. "Follow us upstairs, we need to talk about what we're doing next."
—
Hawkins Indiana, September 6th, 1983
Veronica sat on the trunk of a burgundy BMW. Her heels propped up against the back bumped, her backpack beside her, and earphones on and cranked up to maximum volume. Fleetwood Mac poured through the speakers. It was a mixed tape her foster brother had made her.
Her iPod was buried beneath her bed with a few other things from her other world. She missed her music. She missed her heavy metal and her emo bands. Damn, music was good back then, or would be good in the future.
She'd been dismissed early after finishing up her Bio test. She was the fastest one by far and she knew she passed the test with flying colors. She strode straight over to the high school parking lot and parked herself up on the trunk of the only car she recognized.
Veronica removed her headphones and pulled off her beanie, it wasn't very cold and her head had healed by then anyway. She pulled the pins from her hair and shook out her mane. It felt good to release her hair from the pressure of being pulled back that way.
Veronica sighed as she glanced down at her new watch. Twenty minutes until both schools let out.
She pulled her sleeve back to look at the numbers in her arm. She needed to find a way to cast a localized glamour on just the tattoo. The scars had already been seen. She'd no doubt that Joyce Byers had saw them that morning as well. No more use in hiding them with magic.
She pulled her sleeve back down and then put the headset back on and laid back against the trunk, her head leaned against the back window.
She thought over her session at lunch. She'd been meditating, sort of. She'd been checking in with her little friend at the lab, sending a part of herself out into Hawkins Lab and taking measure of the other girl.
She hadn't had a repeat of the same mind meld she experienced that first night. She hadn't wanted to, not yet anyway.
She'd always been good at sending magic, being able to see and sense people's auras and cores. She'd been monitoring her friend that way. Feeling out her aura, brushing against her core but never allowing them to entwine the way they had previously.
The girl had been sleeping. At noon on a weekday. Like she always did. The lab apparently liked to keep her mostly nocturnal. Veronica checked on her multiple times throughout the day and every night.
She'd fallen asleep that morning while monitoring her. She slipped out of the house at about two and trekked into the forest by the lab. It was the first time she'd been back to the lab since that night. She'd monitored the girl's magical signature often but hadn't been back physically.
She watched the guard patterns, noted all the cameras on the property, sketched a layout of the lab, all the entrances and even a single drain pipe that lead off the property.
She planned on going back in the next few days to record the guard schedule by time. The watch really was necessary for her plans.
After she realized the girl in the lab was asleep she decided to check in on her little nerd herd. They'd been following her around, but they quickly turned to full blown stalking lately. They'd brought in the binoculars only recently, last Wednesday. It was odd being the one being watched. She was just glad that she wasn't actively keeping tabs on Will outside of school anymore.
She thought she knew his connection to what was coming. Wrong place, wrong time. A boy with a magical core that rode by a place that housed a Witch and experimented with magic and possibly Demons? She just needed to monitor the girl and act when shit hit the fan, if she couldn't get the girl out of there before things went to Hell.
Her music changed again. A synthesizer, the pluckinging of a bass, the beat of percussion and whine of an electric guitar.
Kicking ass and standing against the forces of darkness.
If she didn't know for a fact that Dustin didn't have a magical core at all, she would have thought him to be a psychic. Or to be a dimension hopper himself. The wording was too close to the truth.
She hadn't heard the spiel in a while.
"Into every generation, there is a chosen one." She recited the words out loud. She tapped her boots to the beat of the song, against the car bumper. "One girl in all the world. She alone will wield the strength and skill to stand against the Vampires, the Demons, and the forces of darkness." She propped herself onto her elbows and noticed that students were finally pouring out from the schools. She wouldn't have to wait long. "To stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers." She whispered the last line to herself. "I am the Slayer."
She tapped her fingers to the music and hummed along to the guitar. Until the sound was gone.
"What are you doing on my car?" Harrington had yanked the headset off her ears and dropped it onto her stomach.
He was standing near the backseat with his hands on his hips. He was wearing a burgundy and navy striped long sleeve polo shirt, it was tucked into his blue jeans. He wore a brown belt and white sneakers. His hair was artfully parted and swept out and then backwards.
He was the proverbial 80s alpha male. He dressed a bit like Eric Forman, the hair was definitely Kelso though. She didn't understand the appeal.
"First of all," she sat up completely and turned to face him. "That was rude." His eyes were on her neck. She patted the car twice. Drawing his attention before shooting a finger gun at him, three inches from his nose. "Second? I have a proposition for you."
He swiped at her hand in his face. He missed, as she dodged his hand reflexively. "You have a proposition for me? What do you want now?"
"Now? You act like I've asked something of you before. I haven't. Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you."
He stared at her blankly.
"It was a play on words. Kennedy. His inaugural speech? Nothing?" She sighed. "Your failing History too aren't you?"
"What? No. I have a 'C' in History, thank you very much. And what do you mean 'too'."
"I mean, I heard you're failing English." She'd seen an essay on the floor of his car the night he drove her home. A big fat 'F' in red ink stamped across the top and so many corrections throughout the body.
She had actually heard that he'd been assigned a tutor in English. Nancy Wheeler, older sister of Will's friend Mike. She'd overheard the boy telling his friends how much his sister was complaining about working with him. She told her friend, Barb, that he was a jerk who tried to convince her to do a paper for him. He didn't show up to their assigned meeting on time. And apparently she also thought him cute but too much of a jerk to bother pining for.
Mike liked to listen in on his sister's phone calls.
"What's that have to do with anything?"
"Well, this might surprise you but I've been known to sell papers for cash. English specifically. I'm good at analytical papers, book reports, persuasive essays. You name it. You give me a few of your old essays, I mimic a bit of your writing style. We start off with a 'C' paper and then we work our way up from there. You don't go from a failing paper to perfect one in one essay. That's how you get caught."
"Wait, hold on here." Harrington waved his arms about as it to physically clear away the words being hurled at him. "Are you offering to write English essays for me?"
"Do I need to speak slower for you to understand?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Yes. I. Write. Essay." She pointed at first herself and then him. "You. Get. Good. Grade." She held two fingers up. Her index and middle fingers and swiped her thumb back and forth across them. The universal sign of money. "I. Get. Cash. Both. Happy."
"You're a little asshole, you know that?" She smiled at his words.
"You say that like it's a bad thing. I take it as the highest form of flattery." He pushed her off the car. She landed on her feet with ease.
"You're in middle school. There's no way I'm letting you write my papers."
Veronica dragged her bag towards her. She slipped her hand inside and pulled out a thin folder. "What are you reading in English right now?"
"Um, 1984 by George…" he trailed off.
"Orwell. It's by George Orwell." She pulled out a packet of paper from the back of the folder. "'Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.'"
"Was that supposed to be something from the book?"
"Yes. Part three, chapter three. I've read it before, I've written essays on it before. You're in good hands." She handed him the sheets in her hand. "This is an essay I wrote for 'Pride and Prejudice' it's an example of an 'A' paper. Take it."
"What am I supposed to do with this?" He stepped closer to her. Hunching over as he whispered to her.
"Read it. See if it's worthy of a high school essay?" She zipped up her backpack and swung it back onto her shoulder.
"Look, I don't really know if this is a good idea. I mean-"
"Is everything okay here?" They both looked up from their hushed conversation. Nancy Wheeler stood there in all her doll like glory. The only thing that wasn't doll like was the near scowl on her face.
"Hey! Nancy!" Harrington straightened up immediately. He ran his fingers through his hair with one hand and then reached the other out to lean an elbow against the roof of his car.
He missed.
He flailed for a fraction of a second and then he did a full body lean against the car. His arm rested on the roof and her drummed his fingers against the burgundy finish.
"What's up?" He nodded his head at her, in a way that was supposed to be cool. He was really trying to lay the charm on thick.
"Um, nothing much. I just wanted to check in and make sure we're still on for our meeting on Thursday. To go over your book report." Nancy hugged her books to her chest as she spoke to him. Her baby blue, cardigan covered arms formed an 'X' across her body. She was not feeling his charm.
Veronica decided to step in and save the day. It was her job as a Slayer to stop the death of civilians. And Steve was dying out there.
"Hi, I'm Veronica." She'd seen the way the girl had eyed her curiously. She waved a hand at the girl. "I was just letting Steve know that he didn't have to drive me home today." She stepped away from the car and towards the older girl. "He's been nice enough to give me a ride back home sometimes, when we both stay late. I like to study in the library, I go to the middle school. He doesn't like the thought of me out on the roads too late."
"Oh. I'm Nancy, by the way." She reached out a hand to the younger girl. They shook and some of the tension in Nancy drained away.
"I know. Steve's told me about how kind you've been to offer to help him." Nancy seemed surprised at the notion that he mentioned her. "I'm sorry about making him late to your study sessions the last few times. I've been working on this project for Bio and I've had a lot of books with me. It's easier to bring them home in a car than on a bike. Steve's been really kind to me since I've been fostered here."
"Fostered?" Her voice was soft.
"Yeah. My parents died when I was young, I've lived in a few orphanages in a few cities but my foster mother here is really kind. She's just a bit busy. Doesn't have time to pick me up from school very often. But Steve's been a big help."
She looked from Veronica and then back to Steve. The Slayer could tell that she had warmed up to him already. She'd hit all the major points.
Helping a little orphan get back home late in the afternoon. Complimenting her kindness. Mentioning that he talked about her.
Nancy smiled at Steve for the first time since she came up to them. "That's really sweet of you, Steve."
"It's nothing, really." He went with it.
"I have to go but it was nice meeting you, Veronica. I'll see you tomorrow Steve." She headed towards the middle school where her brother was waiting for her by a car. Probably their mom's.
Nancy paused her steps and looked back at them both. Her eyes were just for Steve, really.
He waved back at her, a grin on his face.
"I should charge you extra for that."
He looked down at her in awe. "How did you do that?"
"I don't teach that." She picked up the essay he dropped on the car. "I do homework, essays and the occasional art project. There endeth the lesson."
The words reminded her of Buffy.
Time to negotiate a price.
"Now I charge ten for 'C', fifteen for a 'B', and twenty for a perfect paper."
"That's a bit high."
"Well would you rather do them yourself? Don't you want to impress Nancy with your improvement?"
"Well…"
"So tomorrow after school, I bring you an essay on 1984. And you give me ten bucks. Deal?"
"Fine."
"I need a prompt though."
"I think I have one in my bag, wait a second let me grab it."
—
The essay prompt was just a basic book report. All Veronica had to do was flip through the book reports she had saved over the years. She had several on 1984. Two of the 'C' worthy papers on slightly better than the first.
She'd give him the second one. So he could impress Nancy just the slightest bit. She'd give it to him the next day, have him copy it in his own handwriting and then return it to her when he was done.
Ten dollars, easy, and she didn't have to do anything.
She spent the rest of the night practicing katas with a broom handle.
Faith had been the guiding force in her life post Sunnydale but she'd never had the patience to practice katas with her. She was a street fighter first and foremost. Veronica had adapted to Faith's wild style of fighting eventually, but the precise movements of martial arts is what felt most natural to her.
Buffy had actually shown Veronica a few Tai Chi routines she'd learned from Angel.
It made her think back on the words she'd spoken earlier that day. The first speech Buffy had really given them before the true Slayer training had started.
I don't know what's coming next, but I do know it's gonna be just like this- hard, painful.
Her movements were swift. Precise. Strong.
But in the end it's gonna be us. If we all do our part, believe it- we'll be the ones left standing.
There was no we. Veronica was alone in what was to come, but she was prepared to do her part. To play her role in what was to come.
Veronica could hear Marianne calling out to her from within the house. She looked down at her watch. It was 10:30.
"Here endeth the lesson."